Dear Sir:
The comment by RCMP Const. Angela Rabut contained in your firearms amnesty story of July 10 regarding antique guns that destroying these valuable and irreplaceable firearms was "heartbreaking" is a colossal understatement.
It's just like burning stacks and stacks of hundred dollar bills. The good citizens of B.C. turned in their valuable firearms because the police convinced them that it was unsafe to do otherwise.
Did the police tell them that they had other options? There are many federally licensed gun dealers and collectors, approved gun clubs and ranges, museums and auction houses that would have gladly taken the guns off their hands legally and paid the owners what the firearms were actually worth.
Did the police tell these unsuspecting citizens how valuable these firearms were – especially the antiques?
Rather than being destroyed by the police under the direction and control of both the federal and provincial governments, these hundreds of turned-in guns and tens of thousands of confiscated guns could be auctioned off to federally licensed gun owners and the money spent on real priorities in B.C. Communities.
Sadly, the government would rather waste thousands of dollars destroying these beautiful firearms (see the pictures) than use the money they could have made selling them, to do good work in their communities at absolutely no risk to public and police safety.
Dennis R. Young,
Airdrie, Alberta